Multicast services over structured P2P networks

IP multicast functionality was defined as an efficient method to transmit datagrams to a group of receivers. However, although a lot of research work has been done in this technology, IP multicast has not spread out over the Internet as much as expected, reducing its use for local environments (i.e., LANs). The peer-to-peer networks paradigm can be used to overcome the IP multicast limitations. In this new scenario (called Application Layer Multicast or ALM), the multicast functionality is changed from network to application layer. Although ALM solution can be classified into unstructured and structured solutions, the last ones are the best option to offer multicast services due to the effectiveness in the discovery nodes, their mathematical definition and the totally decentralized management. In this chapter we are going to offer a tutorial of the main structured ALM solutions, but introducing two novelties with respect to related surveys in the past: first, the systematic description of most representative structured ALM solution in OverSim (one of the most popular p2p simulation frameworks). Second, some simulation comparatives between flooding-based and tree-based structured ALM solution are also presented. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.